Junior’s diverse background, role models have helped her style evolve.
COLUMBIA, KY. (05/13/2025) Lindsey Wilson College student Reilly Wells ’26 is rarely speechless.
But the student leader recently found herself searching for the right words to describe the feelings of receiving one of the college’s top student leadership awards this spring.
Known as the L3 Award — which stands for live, learn and lead — the award recognizes Lindsey Wilson students and employees who exemplify the spirit to live, learn and lead through in their daily work. The award is presented annually to three members of the Lindsey Wilson student body.
Wells said “it was quite astonishing (to receive the award) because I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
“As I have gotten older, I’ve been more focused on school rather than on extracurricular activities,” said Wells, the daughter of Chris Wells and Amy Thompson-Wells of Columbia. “I really haven’t had many leadership roles lately outside of class. But I was pleasantly surprised.”
Wells said receiving the award was also a lesson in leadership. As Lindsey Wilson Dean of Students Chris Schmidt told her, the impact of her leadership off campus has been just as important as what she’s done on campus, and Wells has done a lot.
An Adair County High School graduate and a media studies and theatre double major with a minor in English, Wells has served Lindsey Wison as a resident assistant and as a member of the college’s student government. In the community, she’s been a volunteer art instructor at Adair County Primary Center’s Camp Casey afterschool program. During the past several summer seasons, Wells has been a staff member at Lake Cumberland 4-H Camp.
Wells has also been quite involved with the fine and performing arts at Lindsey Wilson. A veteran member of the Lindsey Wilson Singers choral group, Wells has performed numerous solos, and she’s had some of the top roles in Lindsey Wilson theatre productions.
An evolving leader
Wells said that her diverse areas of involvement, both on campus and off, have helped her evolve as a leader. A self-described “very intense person,” Wells said she doesn’t like to “beat around the bush.”
“But as time goes on and the more diverse people you work with, you learn that you have to be more considerate and have more grace with people,” she said.
That has caused Wells’ leadership style to “meld into more of a nurturing one and be that person everyone can come to” for assistance and guidance.
She’s also been influenced by several role models, starting with her parents and late maternal grandmother Nancy Sinclair, who was a longtime Lindsey Wilson employee. In the classroom, Wells said that theatre professor Robert Brock and Gerald Chafin, longtime music professor and director of choral programs, have shaped her leadership.
“There’s no amount of words that can express how thankful I am for them and what they have taught me,” said Wells.
Lindsey Wilson College President William T. Luckey Jr. presents one of the college’s three L3 Awards to Reilly Wells ’26, a media studies and theatre double major from Columbia. In addition to a plaque, L3 recipients also receive a book on leadership, selected by Luckey. The L3 Award recognizes Lindsey Wilson students and employees who exemplify the spirit to live, learn and lead through in their daily work.
Lindsey Wilson College student Reilly Wells ’26, a media studies and theatre double major from Columbia, speaks at the college’s L3 Student Leadership Banquet after receiving on the top three L3 Awards, which recognize Lindsey Wilson students and employees who exemplify the spirit to live, learn and lead through in their daily work.
Lindsey Wilson College is a vibrant liberal arts college in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson — which will become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1 — has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students, and the college offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The college’s 28 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)